Short Takes: 1974-1975 Walnut
The rarest modern Rickenbacker finish?
What is the rarest Rickenbacker finish? I’m not talking about Color of the Year (click to learn more), special runs (click to learn more), or one-offs. I mean catalog, price-list colors.
I doubt anyone could give you a definitive answer to that question—I certainly can’t. But I do have a pretty good idea what the top contenders likely are. Certainly some very early finishes from the 1950s like Two-Tone Brown, Turquoise Blue, and Montezuma Brown belong on the list. The Trans Blue/Green/Red finishes available on the 4004 probably do too. The matte finishes available on the 430, 3000, and 3001 are also contenders given how few of them were made.
But all of those examples come with caveats: they either come from very early in modern Rickenbacker’s history, or were only available on certain models.
So let’s revise the question a bit. What do you suppose is the rarest factory finish that was theoretically available across the entire main-line catalog?
My guess is Walnut.
“Now hold on,” you’re saying. “How can a color that was on the price list from 1974 to 1985 be the rarest Rickenbacker finish?”
And that’s a fair point. I should be more precise. What I’m talking about is Walnut as it appeared in 1974 and 1975. A very specific Walnut.
This Walnut:
Now you were probably picturing this when I said Walnut:
This far more common version of Walnut—produced from 1976 to 1985—is a burst pattern that ranged from brownish to orangish over its run and has launched a thousand arguments over “is it Walnut or Autumnglo?”
For the record, the answer in this case is Walnut. The confusion comes from the fact that Walnut and Autumnglo are actually the exact same color—the only difference is the clear coat. Autumnglo is matte, while Walnut is buffed to a high gloss.
But that’s not the Walnut we’re talking about here.
We’re talking about the first, monochromatic version.
Now I said for us to consider a finish to be a contender for the title of “the rarest” it had to be theoretically available across the entire line. And the 360 above helps make that case.
But if we’re being honest, well over 95% of the instruments you’ll find in this color are 4001 basses.
Here’s why that’s so—and why I still think it counts.
As we’ve discussed elsewhere, Rickenbacker guitar demand absolutely cratered in the early 1970s, dropping to only about 20-25% of the factory’s output in 1974 and 1975.
Luckily, however, bass demand exploded at roughly the same time. The factory simply couldn’t make enough 4001 basses to satisfy the demand.
So right away we already know that basses represented almost 80% of total production. That alone explains why the overwhelming majority of monochromatic Walnut instruments are 4001s.
The rest likely comes down to dealer ordering behavior. Given the state of the market, dealers were ordering 4001 basses to stock and guitars to order. You only buy what you know is going to sell, and Rickenbacker guitars simply weren’t selling at this point.
So a dealer might order five basses to hang on the wall because they knew they’d move. And they’d probably take whatever colors Rickenbacker happened to ship because special finish orders would only slow things down further.
Guitars were different. Somebody had to walk into the store and say “I want this guitar in this color”. And in 1974 nobody even knew this new Walnut color existed yet.
So why did they change from the monochromatic Walnut to burst Walnut in 1976? It probably came down to efficiency.
Rickenbacker had begun experimenting with both the monochromatic Walnut and the “burst” Autumnglo/Walnut in 1973, and you will find examples of all three from that year. Browns were the hot color palette of the 1970s, after all.
The monochromatic Walnut officially entered production in 1974, and Autumnglo followed in 1975. I suspect it didn’t take long to realize that it made more sense to spray one color scheme and simply change the final finish treatment. Buff it to a high gloss and you had Walnut. Leave it matte and you had Autumnglo.
And so the first iteration of Walnut ended up lasting only two years—the shortest run of any catalog, whole-line finish in the modern era. Is it the absolute rarest finish Rickenbacker ever produced? No. But is it the rarest finish ever offered across the main-line catalog? I’d say probably, yes. Answer me honestly: did you know it even existed before this? Enough said.
Want to learn more about all of Rickenbacker’s factory finishes? This article will tell you all about it: